Staple fiber cutter with means to vary lengths of fibers



May 2, 1961 v. JORGENSEN STAPLE FIBER CUTTER WITH MEANS TO VARY LENGTHSOF FIBERS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 8, 1957 Ann INVENTOR 05101K101370050 ATTORNEY y 2, 196] v. JORGENSEN 2,982,163

STAPLE FIBER CUTTER WITH MEANS To VARY LENGTHS 0F FIBERS Filed May 8,1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Jesler K/azyezzsezz ATTORNEY UnitedStates Patent STAPLE FIBER CUTTER WITH MEANS T0 VARY I LENGTHS 0F FIBERSLester V. Jorgensen, Decatur, Ala.,' assignor to The ChemstrandCorporation, Decatur, Ala., a corporation of Delaware Filed May 8, 1957,Ser. No. 657,858

1 Claim. (Cl. 83420) This invention relates to a cutting deviceparticularly adapted to cut staple fibers from yarns, tows or ropes ofcontinuous filamentary material, such as of rayon or other artificialfilaments, nylon and other synthetic filaments, such as those formedfrom linear condensation polyesters, acrylonitrile polymers, and thelike. the invention is concerned with a cutting apparatus and assemblyof the Beria type which is particularly adapted to produce directlystaple fibers having a plurality of lengths.

Very often in the textile industry it is desirable, and in factnecessary in many instances, to blend staple fibers of varying lengthswhen making yarns and threads and the like. It has also been determinedthat textile fibers of similar or different character, that is, whethernatural, artificial or synthetic or of only one 'class, blend betterduring processing, particularly on the woolen or worsted systems, andproduce a yarn of improved uniformity if thefibers have a diversity oflengths. Of course the optimum extent and distribution of such diversitydiffers according to the type of yarn or fabric which is to be producedand the textilesystem' which one contemplates employing therefor.

Various apparatus and processes have heretofore been proposed forproducing fibers of varying lengths from a single fibrous material butin most all instances, the

proposed apparatus and methods leave much to be desired.

For example, various type staple fiber cutting means have been proposedbut usually the same are not capable of operation at normal commercialspeeds due to complexity and excessive year of parts. Likewise suchapparatus have not been readily. adaptable to existing commercialequipment.

It is a primary object of the instant invention to provide an apparatuscapable of producing staple fibers having a diversity of lengths. It isanother object of the invention to provide an apparatus which is capableof producing varying length staple fibers from one-bundle of filamentsand which may be employed with existing equipment. It is still anotherobject of the present invention to provide a novel apparatus which iscapable of producing staple fiber products comprised of mixtures offibers of varying lengths and in which the various fibers may vary inother characteristics, such as denier, stretch, shrinkage, tenacity, andthe like. Other objects and advantages of the present invention will beapparent from the drawing and description thereof hereinafter.

In the drawing, which illustrates a preferred embodiment of theinvention,

Figure 1 is an isometric-view of a preferred embodiment of the variablelength staple fiber cutting means of the instant invention;

Figure 2 is a side elevation view of the cam employed in the embodimentshown in Figure 1; and

'Figure 3' is a diagrammatc plan view, partlyin section, of a portion ofthe embodiment of Figure 1 showing the means for deflecting or changingthe path of travel of the filamentary material.

More particularly Patented May 2, 1961 In accordance with the presentinvention the filamentary material to be cut, such as a tow or otherbundle of filamentary material, is fed through a path to a cutting meansat a contsant rate of speed and means are provided adjacent the path ofthe filamentary material for periodically and continuously varying thelength of said path whereby varying lengths of filamentary material areperiodically and continutuosly presented in cutting positinon in thecutting means. Specifically, the means for varying the length of thepath of travel of the filamentary material is a reciprocating meansoperating preferably in the horizontal plane of said path, although, aswill be seen from the description hereinafter, said reciprocating meansmay be positioned to operate in the vertical plane, diagonal plane, orlike plane of the filamentary material path.

For a detailed description of the invention, reference should be had tothe accompanying drawing, the various.

figures of which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention. Astrand of filamentary material 2 is fed by' means of feed rolls 3 and 4to a cutting device 5. Thefilamentary material is fed to the cuttingmeans from a suitable source of supply, such as directly from asynthetic or artificial filament spinning machine or from a creel and iswrapped about the feed rolls 3 and 4 one or more turns. The cutter 5shown is of the Beria type comprising a rotatably mounted cutter disk 6having an entrance channel 7 which communicates with the radial channel8. By means of centrifugal force the filamentary material is thrownradially outwardly from channel 8 into the wall of the knife 9, whichmay be stationarily mounted. In the practice of the present invention,it is essential that a cutter capable of absorbing fiber at extremelyrapid changes of rate of feed be employed. Normally, cutters usingcentrifugal force, air blast, or vacuum systems maybe used. Rotarycutters of the Beria type are. preferred, however.

Adjacent the path of travel of the filamentary material 2, there ispositioned a suitable stand or support 1%, comprising legs 11 mounted onwhich are longitudinal members or supports 12 and 13 and cross membersor supports 14 and 15 attached to members 12 and 13. Positionedintermediate the cross members 14 and 15 and parallel thereto, is athird cross member '16 which is also fastened to members 12 and 13.Mounted on the cross member 16 is a bearing 17, there being a similarbearing 18 mounted on the cross member 14. The bearings 17 and 18support the rotatable shaft 19 keyed to which is cam 20.

A variable speed device or transmission 21 is positioned adjacent thestand or support 10 which in turn is driven by a motor or like powersupply (not shown). Any convenient power'supply and variable speedtransmission may -be employed. The shaft 22 of the variable speed device21 is joined to shaft 19 by means of the coupling 23. When employing thepresent invention, in order to insure uniform results, it is essentialthat the speed of the cutter 5 and the cam 2i) be synchronized. In orderto insure such synchronization it is generally desirable that the samemotor or like power supply be employed to drive both the cutter and cam.This can be accomplished by means of the variable speed transmission 21,since, as pointed out below, the cutter and cam will not usually bedriven at the same r.p.m.

wardly extending portion 28 serves to prevent twisting of the shaft 26when in operation. The bracket 27 supports the rotatable cam follower orroller 31 which is positioned in the groove 32 on the face of cam 20. Achannel guide or deflector guide 33 is positioned on the end of shaft 26in such a manner as to engage the filamentary material 2 on its way tothe cutter 5. It should be understood that while a channel guide isshown in the embodiment of the drawing, any other suitable guide may beused which is designed to prevent the sideways movement of thefilamentary material passing therethrough, such as a slot, U-shapedguide, and the like. The channel guide has the advantage of easythreading upon start-up.

Brackets 34 and 35 are mounted on the longitudinal member 12 on eitherside of bearing 24. Adjustably 1/ mounted on brackets 34 and 35 andextending outwardly therefrom toward the path of travel of thefilamentary material are pigtail guides or eyelets 36 and 37respectively. While any suitable guide may be employed in place of thoseshown, the pigtail guides or eyelets have .the advantage of being easilyand readily threaded upon start-up and in case of a break in thefilamentary material. In this regard, in the case of breaks or otherreasons for shut-down, automatic stopping devices may be employed withthe instant apparatus, such as that shown and described in US. PatentNo. 2,722,983.

While not shown for sake of simplicity, the cam can be driven throughthe variable speed transmission or drive 21 by a separate motor or bythe rotary cutter motor. As will be seen from the subsequent descriptionof operation of the instant apparatus, however, it is essential that thecam be operated in synchronization with the cutter and accordingly, someattachment to the rotary cutter motor is desirable. Such an attachmentwould be within the skill of an ordinary mechanic.

The operation of the variable length staple fiber cutting assembly ofthe present invention is as follows: the cam 20 is rotated at a constantrate of speed which causes the shaft 26 and guide 33 to reciprocate in ahorizontal plane coincident with the plane of the filamentary material 2which is engaged by the guide 33. By constant rate is meant that thespeed of the cam is always in the same ratio or relationship to thespeed of the cutter. The shaft 26 is reciprocated by reason of the camfollower 31 riding in the groove 32 on the face of the cam. It will benoted (Figure 2) from the shape of the groove 32 that the guide 33 willbe at a starting position coincident with the path of travel of thefilamentary material and will be moved outwardly therefrom and returnedto the Starting position twice during one complete revolution of the cam20. The effect of this motion of channel guide 33 is to lengthen thepath of travel of the filamentary material between the feed rolls 3 and4 and the cutter 5. This in turn causes a difference in the length 2A(Figure l) of filamentary material presented in cutting position. Theamount of deviation of the strand or filamentary material can be variedby changing the size ofcam 20 and also by moving the stationary guides36 and 37 toward and away from the reciprocating or channel guide 33.For efiicient operation the channel guide 33 should be in neutralposition, that is, coincident with the normal path of travel of thefilamentary material 2 at the start-up of the apparatus and the knifeblade 9 should be touching the filamentary material to be cut 2A.

To illustrate in more detail the operation of the apparatus, thefollowing specific example is given. The rotary cutter 5 was set tooperate at a speed of 4500 r.p.m. The speed of the godets or feedrollers 3 and 4 was adjusted to give out fibers or a staple length of 3inches when the cam 20 and the reciprocating channel guide 33 was not inoperation. With this setting on the cutter and feed rolls and using acam 20 approximately 20 inches in diameter and constructed as shown inFigure 2, staple fibers varying in length from 1 inch to 5 inches wereobtained. It is well to note here the shape of the groove 32 of cam 20and in this regard reference should be had to Figure 2 of the drawing.The cam is divided into increments of 36 each and designated by theletters A to I. As the cam follower 31 goes through each of theincrements A, B, D, E, F, G, I and J the channel guide 33 is moving. Theincrements C and H represent the dwell time of the cam and when thefollower 31 passes therethrough, the guide 33 is stationary at the endof the outward stroke. It will be noted that the groove 32 is so shapedas to cause the channel guide 33 to be moved outwardly and returned toits starting position, coincident with the filamentary material path,twice during a single revolution of the cam.

There are 10 increments (A-J) on the cam which means that 10 pieces offilamentary material will be cut during one revolution of the cam. Thismeans the cam must rotate only once for each ten rotations of the cutteror at a speed of 450 rpm. since in this example, the cutter was operatedat 4500 r.p.m.

As the cam 20 is rotated the channel guide 33 deflects the moving strandof filamentary material. In our example, the first increment on the cam(E) increased the strand 2 path by two inches. These two inches weresubtractive from the basic feed of 3 inches per cut of the rotarycutter. The next increment (D) of the cam caused a further increase inthe strand path of another inch before the next cut-off at the cutter.The third increment (C) of the cam is zero, which produced a dwell atthe previous stage, which, it should be noted, does not affect thestrand speed as it is merely displaced until the next cut-off. That isto say, during the increment C the filamentary material presented incutting position will return to 3 inches since the strand speed remainsconstant. After passing through increment C the next two increments ofthe cam B and A are the reverse of E and D, and accordingly, as the camfollower passed therethrough, the strand path was decreased resulting inproportionately greater lengths of cut pieces of filamentary material,that is, greater in length than the normal 3 inch feed setting of themechanism. These five increments of the cam constitute /2 cycle and atthe end thereof the channel guide is back to its neutral centerline ofreference, the filamentary material path. The next half cycle of the camis a repetition of the first.

It is well to note here the action of the present mechanism. The basicfeed of the strand was 3 inches per revolution of the cutter. The firststage or increment E of the cam robbed the strand, or in reality, thecutter, of 2 inches, hence the cut was 3"2" or 1''. The second stage orincrement D stole only one inch, hence the cut was 3"-1" or 2". Thethird stage or increment C stole nothing, so the cut was.30 or 3". Thefourth stage or increment B refunded the inch the increment D stole,hence the cut was 3"|1" or 4 inches. The fifth stage or increment Areplaced the 2 inches stolen by increment B, so therefore the cut was3"+2" or 5 inches. Therefore, in one-half of a cam cycle of five stagesthere was produced five lengths of fiber of 1", 2", 3", 4" and 5", or anaggregate of 15 inches of strand or filamentary material. The samecutting action was repeated during the second half cycle of the cam,thus processing 30 inches of the filamentary material per revolution ofthe cam. Since the cam was operated at 450 rpm. a total of 13,500 inchesof filamentary material was cut every minute.

As previously pointed out, it is desirable for most eificient operation,to have the shafts of the cutter and cam interlocked to insure that bothare driven at a constant speed without variation. Unless the cam andcutter shafts are interlocked, any slight speed error, for example, asin our above example, the speeds of cam and cutter were 449 rpm. and4500 r.p.m. instead of the desired 450 r.p.m. and 4500 rpm, would resultin a precessive phase shift of cutter to cam or measuring deviceresulting in length variations between steps or increments.

i be any desired distance apart depending on the amount of deflection ofthe strand path desired and the size of the cam 20 being employed in aparticular cutting operation. For example, when the guides 36'and 37 arepositioned 12 inches apart and the distance from each guide to thedeflection point (guide 33) in 6 inches, it will require a deflection of2% inchesfrom a straight line to increase the strand path by 2 inches inlength, when employing a cam as shown approximately 20 inchesindiameter. It will require a further deflection of0;87 inch to increasethe path one inch more. It should be noted that a slight decrease of thespacing of the guides 36 and 37 will reduce the length of the shortestfibers cut. 0n the other hand it should also be noted that a slightdecrease in the feed roller speed will shorten the length of the longestfibers cut.

An important feature of the present invention is that it introducesrapid and controlled variations in the rate of feed of a strand orfilamentary material to a cutting mechanism in such a way that thevariations cancel out without disturbing the basic feed rate of thestrand over an interval of time. 7

Another important feature of the instant device is that it enables oneto produce a staple fiber product having any desired maximum and minimumfiber lengths and any desired length distribution may readily beobtained by varying the speed of the cam in relation to the cutterspeed, by using different shaped cams, by varying the distance betweenthe stationary guides, or by any combination of such alterations.

The filamentary material 2 proceeding to the godets or feed rollers 3and 4 may be taken from a creel of wound packages of filamentarymaterial, such as spools or bobbins of yarn or cakes of rayon.Alternatively, the filamentary material may be taken directly from aspinning machine, such as a machine for spinning artificial andsynthetic filamentary material by extrusion of plastic material, such as"viscose, acrylonitrile polymers, nylon, and the like,through theorifices'of spinnerets from which it is drawn through a suitablecoagulating medium about the periphery of a godet positively driven atsubstantially constant speed, or in succession about the periphery of aplurality of .such godets between any two or more of which the materialmay, if desired, be subjected to stretching or shrinkage or tostretching and shrinkage in succession.

The present invention is advantageous in that it provides a simple meansfor continuously producing varied length staple fibers. Further, thepresent mechanism is advantageous in that it can be employed withexisting cutting equipment. invention will be apparent to those skilledin the art from a study of the instantdescription and drawing.

While preferred embodiments of the invention have been disclosed, theinstant description is intended to be illustrative only, and it is to beunderstood that changes and variations may be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appendedclalm.

I claim:

An apparatus for cutting filamentary material into fibers ofpredetermined various lengths, comprising a frame, a rotary cutterpositioned adjacent to the frame for rotation at a predetermined speed,means on the frame for guiding the yarn to the cutter, a movable guideadapted to engage the yarn adjacent to the guiding means for deflectingthe path of the yarn to thereby vary the length of the yarn path so thatthe yarn is fed to the cutter at varying speeds, a cam roatably mountedon the frame and having a groove in the face thereof, means for drivingthe cam and the cutter in timed relationship so that the'yarn is cut atuniform intervals during each revolution of the cam, a cam followerpositioned in the groove in the cam, and means interconnecting the camfollower and the movable guide for displacing said guide as the cam isrotated, said groove having a plurality of portions traversedsequentially by the cam follower, said yarn being cut as the camfollower passes the intersection of adjacent portions of said groove, afirst of said portions being arcuateand concentric with the axis ofrotation of the cam for holding the movable guide stationary as saidfirst portion is traversed by the cam follower, said groove having apair of second portions connected to the first portion on opposite endsthereof and curving radially inward a predetermined radial distance,said'groove also having a pair of third portions connected to the endsof the second portions and curving radially inward a radial distancesubstantially twice said predetermined radial distance, said portionshaving a configuration such that the movable guide is displaced to varythe yarn path in such a manner that the yarn is cut into lengths equalto successive multiples of a unit length.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTSNumerous other advantages of the" UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICECERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No". 2,982,163 May 2, 1961 Lester V..Jorgensen it is hereby certified that error appears in the abovenumbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patentshould read as corrected below v r Column 1, line 45, for "year" readwear line 69 for "-'diagrammatc" read diagrammatic column 2, line 4, f0r. ='-c0ntsant" read constant line 8, for "continutuosly" readcontinuously same column 2, line 31, for "wall" read way column 5, linell" for "2V read 3 column 6, line 20, for '"roatably" read rotatablySigned and sealed this 3rd day of October 1961.

(SEAL) Attest:

ERNEST W. SWIDER DAVID L. LADD Attesting Officer Commissioner of PatentsUSCOMM-DC

